Microsoft Japan: 80 Xbox games by year-end
Tripling number of titles available in Japan seen as an attempt to counter upcoming release of PlayStation 3.
Offering attractive game titles is crucial to boosting struggling sales of the new machine in Japan and to better compete with PlayStation 3, whose release was recently delayed until early November.
Microsoft expects 15 games to be launched by the summer for the machine, boosting the number of titles to 40. That will rise to around 80 by the end of the year, Takashi Sensui, general manager of the Japanese unit's Xbox division, told a briefing.
The 15 game titles to be launched by summer include Hudson Soft's "Bomberman" action game and Capcom's "Dead Rising" survival horror.
"Microsoft's head of games division, Peter Moore, has repeatedly said that there would be no true success for Microsoft without Xbox's success in Japan," Sensui said.
"Xbox has created such a stir in overseas markets including the United States and Europe. As the manager of Xbox operations in Japan, my task is to achieve the same success in Japan."
The Xbox 360 has been selling well in the United States and Europe, but has received a tepid response in Japan.
Microsoft is estimated to have sold 123,000 units of Xbox 360 in Japan between its early December launch and March 26, according to industry watcher Enterbrain.
Sony sold almost a million units of its PlayStation 2 console in the first three days of its March 2000 launch in Japan.